Stanford Beats Oregon, Win PAC-10 Title

C and R piled in the car with their good friend P, and headed to Maples to see the Stanford Women’s Basketball Team clinch the regular season PAC-10 crown with a victory, on a clear but cold day. The snow that was promised for our area never materialized.

Nice crowd of 5,114 for a night game that was changed to day. We see Nneka Ogwumike, coming off a badly sprained ankle all suited up and even starting and EVEN JUMPING! What the hecka! C and R figure head coach Tara VanDerveer must be a little more worried about this game then she is letting on to risk more injury to their top scorer and rebounder.

And then the game starts and what the hecka was she worried about. Stanford is playing a run and gun team in Oregon, which means they will be the ones to come out and run and gun, and yes, true to form, they emulate their opposition’s style and energy. Jeanette Pohlen makes some incredible fast break passes, along with her threes (and ends up with 20 points). Toni Kokenis runs down the floor as if she has jets on her sneakers. Nneka gets to have a rest after 12 minutes of play. Sisters Nneka and Chiney, true to form, emulate each other with having a contact lens pop out and putting it back in on the floor (all contact lens wearers everywhere in the building mouth, “aren’t they even going to wash their hands first?”). Stanford takes a 56 to 25 lead into the locker room at half.

If anything, the foul calling slowed the pace of play. Ya know, it’s one of those “careful what you wish for” moments. C and R always are ready to criticize the horribly called PAC-10 games, and this game the refs did a great job making mostly correct calls, but they called every-single-thing. Away from the ball, on the ball, every travel, every maybe charge, every reach in and they called it about 90% correctly, which was amazing. However, calling every single contact really slowed down the pace of play and slowed Stanford down. How many fouls were called? We lost count, but Oregon would have three players foul out in the second half. (And the fouled-out players and the band were trying to second guess each other as the band likes to yell “Siddown” when they sit and they kept lowering and raising themselves to try and catch the band off guard.).

Then the Stanford bench got in very early in this game and scored 47 of the 99 Stanford points. The bench held Oregon to 60 points and you have to admire Oregon coach Paul Westhead taking two time outs in the final minute 15 to get them to 60 points. Always play your hardest until the final whistle.

Stanford clinched the PAC-10 title and the PAC-10 commissioner himself was on hand to present the trophy to Tara VanDerveer. He said this was the 25th anniversary of women’s sports in the PAC-10 and Stanford has won the basketball title 20 of those years. Remarkable tribute to the consistency of Stanford’s head coach, who has been at Stanford for 25 years.

The only suspense was were they doing “senior night “ a game early. At half, we heard a rumor that because the last Cal game was changed from 6 PM to 8 PM, it would be too late to do a senior tribute after the game so they were going to do it after this game. C and R and P hang out and they say the seniors were going to come out on the court for a short time.

Seniors Mel Murphy, Ashley Cimino (Cinnamon) Jeanette Pohlen and Kayla Pedersen came out and did a nice little Q & A with the crowd. However, it was a little bit of a let down from the usual tributes where everyone goes next door and parents tell stories and teammates reminisce, and it has a cozy, intimate family atmosphere. This one seemed more impromptu and hurried and injured senior Hannah Donaghe wasn't even there (she was on a previously scheduled field trip). Just the four seniors came out, no teammates and most parents were not in attendance (exception Jeanette Pohlen's parents, who told the story about the first time JP fiercely wrestled away a defensive rebound to put it right back up in the wrong basket.). At one point, Tara VanDerveer stepped away to check on Toni Kokenis and Amy Tucker stepped in, and it would have been nice to hear a little more from Tara about her players.

Still, it was nice to hear what the players were going to do next year. All thanked the crowd for their unwavering support, whether they were up by 30 or down by one. And thought it was great how the fans cheered a basket, whether it was made by a starter or a reserve. Jeanette said part of the record 60 consecutive home wins and counting record was because of the fans. The internet notes they have not lost at home in more than four season, so we guess it is fair to say these seniors don’t know what it is like to lose at Maples.

We heard Stanford was still going to do the flowers and stuff for the seniors at the Cal game on Thursday. Last year, Stanford’s final regular season game was at Cal, and when Cal honored their seniors, they gave flowers to the Stanford seniors (Jayyyyyynnnnne!). Hope Stanford reciprocates. Remember, game time is 8 PM on Thursday. Broadcast on Fox Sports Net/Comcast Local Sports Network channel.

Stanford, Bench, Crush Oregon State

Okay, in the car on the way to Maples, C and R had a prediction about the Stanford Women’s Basketball Team’s game vs. Oregon State. We predicted Stanford would start out slowly, let Oregon State hang around, have a small spurt before the half, then come out and go on a 12 to small something run. Well, that was easy to predict because that seems like how the last five PAC-10 games have gone. Also in the car, we had to negotiate RAIN! Or more specifically, the drivers driving in the RAIN! And in northern California if anything hits our windshield we think hurricane forces are at work and slow down to about 7 miles per hour, unlike back East where it rains so hard you can’t see more than 5 feet in front of your car so you slow down to 70.

So 3,344 of our closest, bravest friends came out for the game. One who was none other than fave of faves Candice Wiggins. Yours truly went up and talked to her at the half. Wanna know what Candice said? Well, you go get the courage to go and talk to her yourself!! But C and R will share she is vibrant, radiant, in great health, and just a wonderful athlete in her prime. We wish her a healthy and successful WNBA season. Even if her team gets Maya Moore.

Oh yeah, they were playing a game at Maples; we got a little distracted with Candice. Stanford, playing again without Nneka Ogwumike, takes an early lead, as predicted. Then there was a weird technical foul against Chiney Ogwumike, who was called for an intentional foul around the 15:58 mark, and the stoppage of play to review the monitor slowed down Stanford more than anything. So they watched Oregon State go up by 5, with the score 6-11 at the 13:39 mark. We didn’t predict that! C and R mention the time and score because Oregon State will stay stuck at 11 until the 2:33 mark. Almost 11 minutes without scoring a point! Halftime ends and it is 29-14, Stanford. Wow. Now that’s defense, and Stanford was flawless and seamless in their switches and Oregon State did not make the most of the mismatches. Plus, love the 1-3-1 with Chiney Ogwumike on point.

Stanford didn’t go on a huge run to start the second half as we predicted, but slowly chipped away at Oregon State to build a 17 point lead. But starting at the 11 minute mark, in the span of two minutes, Jeanette Pohlen made a steal and then hit a long three, Kayla Pedersen hit another three and Jeanette got another three after that and Toni Kokenis got a steal and fast break basket AFTER THAT, for a quick 28 point lead, and it was all over except for bench duty.

Speaking of Toni and steals, ya know how when you hear two words put together so often they lose their meaning, such as saying this hot chocolate is cold, or this iced tea is hot or my hot dog is awful? Well, take the words fast break. Freshmen Toni Kokenis doesn’t do a fast break, she does a fast fast break. Man her speed; has anyone timed her in the 40? She has great anticipation skills already to time the jump for the steal, but when she does get the ball, she sure can accelerate. Even when she was stumbling and trying to maintain her balance and keep control of her dribble, she still beat the person she stole the ball from to the basket. Stanford got 14 points off the fast break; the overwhelming majority from Toni.

And speaking of the bench, C and R were especially impressed with the bench this time. Sarah Boothe matched her career high with 16 points. Mikaela Ruef sure likes to pass to Boothe. Even their names rhythm. Perhaps they bonded over their summer league experience where Boothe was the “go to” option for that team, because Ruef sure gave the ball to Boothe whenever she could and Sarah was able to bank a lot of shots in. Stanford got 32 points from their bench. Impressive.

Records:
Stanford tied their school record for consecutive home wins. They also got the top seed in the PAC-10 tournament. They can set the consecutive home wins record at 60 and secure an outright conference title by beating Oregon on Saturday. Remember, game time is 2 PM.

Conversation Observations

Super fan TG wrote in with some nice observations. And frankly, it’s such hard work for C and R to create this blog, what with making up facts, supplying grandiose hyperbole, being completely and utterly biased in all things Stanford and finding new and creative ways  tO   mAKe A. TY/pO, that we thought we would just let him rant for awhile so we could rest and relax and roll in all the dough we make from this blog!!. All remarks in parenthesis belong to C and R and are not as funny or insightful.

1. The injury to Nneka Ogwumilke looked pretty serious when I saw it -on my $14.95 a month All-Access! (See, he’s not cheap like C and R). She grabbed it immediately, and couldn't put any weight at all on it.  Hopefully there's no ligament damage or fracture - best case she should rest until the Pac-10 tourney.

2. We just beat the #9 team (UCLA) in the country, #7 RPI, on their home floor, without our best player-arguably the third best player in the country (Nneka), by 14 points. Remarkable.

3. This is traditionally the toughest weekend of the regular season.  To put the two solid wins in perspective, our 2008 team (With Candice Wiggins!) - which went on to beat a Connecticut team with Maya Moore, Tina Charles, and Renee Montgomery in the national semifinals - lost twice on the LA trip.

4. Defensive adjustments and intensity in the second half made the difference in both games.  We were getting killed with 3s by Corral and S. Gilbreath in the first half of USC, and the same by Morris at UCLA.  Great man-to-man pressure on the perimeter, flawless switches, and help rotation on any dribble penetration inside. It wasn't just that UCLA shot poorly, there simply weren't that many good shots to take...

5.  Kokenis and Chiney were both remarkable - each had their best games of the season.  For Kokenis, remarkable decision-making for a freshman - especially when to drive the basket on the fast-break, versus pull up and run the half-court offense. For Chiney, it almost seemed like she was playing double duty, filling in for her sister as well as her own position. Either scored or got to line each time she got the ball down low, and nailed her free throws -10 of 12.

6.  With due respect to Nikki Caldwell, the Pac-10 Coach of the Year, in my opinion, comes down to Tara or Scott Rueck at Oregon State -just beat Oregon for their second conference win, coming back from down 20 at half.  My vote is to Rueck - Tara started with 6 McDonald All-Americans and a 3-time returning Final Four team - Rueck started with exactly 2 returning reserve players and the smoldering aftermath of a mutiny -like that?. In addition to the two conference wins and 7 non-conference wins, they play basketball the right way, and have been competitive in every game except ours.

Sorry about the wordiness, it's therapeutic - keep up the great blogging!
(Yes, C and R help to keep the streets safe at night as all the crazies are home either blogging or reading blogs, us included). Anyone else, feel free to write in!

Don’t forget to check game times up until, well, game time as they keep a’changing.

Pulling Rank

So when C and R saw Baylor lost, to unranked Texas Tech, we thought the new women’s basketball rankings this week would be UConn, Baylor, Stanford, especially after all those PAC-10 games where Stanford started out so slowly, they would be lucky to hold on to number three. Lo and behold, the rankings dropped Baylor to number three. Both polls have UConn number one, Stanford number two, and Baylor number three. Yippee. We're number two! And we mean that in the best possible way! Maybe it is a good thing those PAC-10 games weren’t televised. Oh yeah, Tennessee is a distant fourth, hee hee.

One Ogwumike as Good as the Other to Beat UCLA

So this game was different. It was different because for the first time ever R doubted Stanford could win. Granted, her reasoning was sound. Arguably the best player in the PAC-10, Stanford’s Nneka Ogwumike, was in a walking boot because of a sprained ankle and sidelined for the game, and Stanford has come out flat in the first half in their last five or so PAC-10 games, AND Stanford was set to play number 8th ranked UCLA on their home floor, who was out for revenge after their 26 point loss to Stanford the first go-around. C is usually the pessimistic of the bunch. She thinks Stanford will lose every game. Even if Stanford was matched up against the 4th grade girl scout troop daises, or pirates with wooden legs and eye patches on both eyes and stricken with scurvy or whatnot, she will lash her teeth and lament their lack of an inside game. But R has never, ever doubted Stanford, no matter who the opponent. Even when Stanford was playing UConn and their streak, R pronounced they would win. And win by 10 even. (C had to buy the dinner that night, but it was worth it!)

And UCLA almost, almost made R’s prediction come true. UCLA kept Stanford from finding the inside player for the awhile but Stanford relied on the three point game. When Stanford did work it inside in the first half, they missed some easy jumpers. (Nerves?). Then Stanford relied on their fast break. Stanford? A fast break team? What ever it takes, baby. Of course it helped to have speedster Toni Kokenis on the floor, who contributed 13 points to the cause. And Stanford let Jasmine Dixon lose to score and grab rebounds too much in the first half.

The score was tied at 28 at the half, and C and R were hoping Stanford’s second half magic would come to life. UCLA shot a lot, 61 times, but they missed a whole lot of them, only making 19 of them for a 30 percentage shooting average for the game. UCLA also went 0-5 for three pointers in the second half. At times it seemed like UCLA was shooting themselves in the foot.

At the start of the second, Stanford slowly chiseled away at UCLA, led by the veteran play of Kayla Pedersen (loved the behind the basket reverse lay up) and when Jeanette Pohlen hit that three around the 4 minute mark to go up 12, the game was over. Final score was 67-53 Stanford.

Also at half time, Stanford head coach Tara VanDerveer asked Nneka’s younger sister, Chiney, to be the Nneka of the game. Chiney responded by scoring 13 of her 18 points after the break. She also grabbed an eye-popping 15 rebounds and made 10 of 12 from the line. Wonder if she will get PAC-10 player of the week?

It was nice to see 6,725 people make it out to Pauley Pavilion to see the game. It was the biggest turn out for a women’s game down there in 13 years. C and R watched it at their friends C and P’s house, who have an amazing big-screen TV and who fed us like queens. We apologize to their Mama for our cheering and obnoxious screaming.

It will be nice to see them back in action, live and in person. Make sure you check the time of the Oregon game; it has been moved to a 2 PM start time.

What Really Happened

Okay, we have an eyewitness report about Tara’ technical at the Stanford Women’s’ Basketball game vs. USC from someone who was at the game. (Thanks to PM)

Tony K made a brilliant swoop inside under the basket, making a layup. The USC player (not planted) stepped into her way and the refs called a charging foul, not counting the basket.  It was so flagrant that the whole red audience stood up and screamed NOOOOO.  Tara hopped onto the court to have a shout at the refs (I've rarely seen her so animated.)  Refs held to their call and gave USC two free technical shots, which they missed, showing there is a GOD.

And, Nneka's fall was really scary.  She lay on her side for over two minutes not moving.  We are all scared it is much worse than just a sprained ankle, but nobody is saying.

Papers reported today that Nneka Ogwumike did not practice Saturday and received treatment for her ankle, and is questionable for today’s game against UCLA.

Come on Stanford, don't start out slow this time!

Stanford Beats USC, Nneka Ogwumike Sprains Ankle

So, okay, it’s not that C and R are cheap, per se, when it comes to shelling out the $14.95 a month for the CBS web package to watch their beloved Stanford Women’s Basketball Team, its just that it is so confusing to get the right screen to even figure out if the Stanford-USC game will be shown on the internet site and if it’s worth it to buy the package. (Okay, so maybe we are cheap). Was it on the website? Because we sure could not make heads or tails of the stupid Gametracker. Well, that also might be because we were trying to watch “Jeopardy” at the same time because now that the machine that beat all humans is gone it’s teen tournament time and with the questions scaled down we actually have a shot at getting a question or two right (Hmm, distracted much?).

Anyhoo, what we learned from chess pieces. Kayla Pedersen had a heck of a game (scored 17 points on 7-9 shooting) and Jeanette Pohlen (and everyone else) were told to make some threes after last games low three point shooting ratio. Jeanette was 5-9 from downtown and had 19 points for the game. It looked like Chiney Ogwumike missed some easy shots and had a lot of turnovers, especially in the second half, yet ended up with 13 points, but is hard to tell what is going on. Tinkle had four fouls in four seconds in the second half.

What we did not learn from Gametracker. Nneka Ogwumike’s sprained ankle. We guess Gametracker doesn’t have little red chess pieces to fall to the ground and clutch their ankle. Nneka sprained her right ankle early in the second half and left the game. That’s going to have repercussions against Sunday’s UCLA game. We also did not learn that Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer was whistled for a technical foul. (It’s okay, Jacki Gemelos missed the two free throws). Guess Gametracker doesn’t have a little red icon to yell at officials or throw a shoe or whatever happened. Anybody know what happened? Was it when Tinkle got four fouls in four seconds? R does not even remember a time Tara got a technical foul.

It appears Stanford have lost their intensity and lost their edge. It can be expected a little when we had focused and prepared for the UConn game in late December. The same thing happened last year after Stanford’s “mini” NCAA tournament run before the start of the PAC-10 season. They focused on that, and after surviving it, intensity and urgency dropped. A clear pattern has emerged against this second round of PAC-10 foes. The foes come out swinging, trying to slow things down, and we respond to plodding play with plodding play of our own and go into the locker room close (This time it Stanford was only up by two, 38-36). Then Tara VanDerveer yells/inspires/gives them good feedback/suggestions/points out their flaws and they respond and open the second half with a XX point run. (This time it was a 12-2 run). Then we hold them off and win by 12-18 or so points. This time the final score against USC was 78-64.

And….  and word is out we don’t like it when the other teams get physical. And why should Stanford like it, they play such pure basketball, using their smarts more than their brawn. Witness Washington, who knew they couldn’t rebound with Stanford, so just had every player hold the arm of a Stanford player. It worked for a half, the score was close, and when the refs finally woke up and threw out 4 players with 5 fouls each, Stanford finally got back to Stanford basketball.

Two quotes that support our rant:
“USC came out, and it looked like they wanted to slow the tempo a little bit," VanDerveer said. "They were more physical this time around."

We knew it was going to be tougher the second time around," Pedersen said. "Everybody scouts everybody, and everybody talks to everybody."

Okay, this last quote from Kayla actually helps to make more sense as to why the PAC-10 teams are having more success the second time around.

Sister Sister
Oh, C and R didn’t realize that USC has sisters, too, like our beloved Nneka and Chiney. They have a Briana Gilbreath and a Stefanie Gilbreath. And like our sisters, who often are high scorers for the team, or at least score nearly identical points. Briana Gilbreath scored 17 points, and Stefanie Gilbreath added 16 in this game. Briana Gilbreath scored 11 of them in the first half and was responsible for keeping the score close, or at least that’s what we gleaned from Gametracker. Stanford then shut her down for the second half with one jumper and four foul shots.

Well, the UCLA game is supposed to be televised on Fox Sports Network. It will be refreshing to see the team for real and not read the play-by-play.